1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicular fuel supply equipment and an installation structure for a fuel filter of a vehicle provided with a fuel pressure regulator.
2. Description of Background Art
Vehicular fuel supply equipment provided with a fuel pressure regulator for keeping fuel supplied to an internal combustion engine under predetermined pressure is known (for example, refer to JP-U No. S62-162375 (FIG. 1).
As shown in FIG. 1 of JP-U No. S62-162375, vehicular fuel supply equipment is provided with a fuel tank 1 (also hereinafter, reference numerals in the patent document 1 will be used as they are), a fuel pump 6 connected to the fuel tank 1 via a fuel pipe 5A, a regulator 7 connected to the outflow side of the fuel pump 6, an injector 8 connected to the regulator 7 via a fuel pipe 5B and a return pipe 9 for returning extra fuel from the regulator 7 to the fuel tank 1.
There is a case that a fuel filter is inserted in an intermediate part of the fuel pipe 5A for example in the fuel supply equipment in JP-U No. S62-162375. The fuel filter is different from the existing fuel filter provided to the fuel tank 1.
A hose on the outflow side of the fuel pump 6, the fuel pipe 5B and the return hose 9 are connected to the fuel pressure regulator 7 and many pipes are already connected, if a new fuel filter is added, the number of pipes connected to the fuel filter further increases. When the number of pipes is increased, a problem that assembly work gets intricate occurs.
In the fuel supply equipment, when the fuel filter and the fuel pressure regulator to which the three hoses are connected are added outside the fuel tank, it is desirable that technique for enabling enhancing productivity related to assembly is provided.
The fuel pipes 5A and 5B and the return pipe 9 are connected to the regulator 7 and are connected to the fuel filter provided on the upstream side of the regulator 7.
In such a case, depending upon positional relation between the regulator 7 and the fuel filter, it may be difficult to identify which pipe should be detached and it is important to prevent maintainability from being deteriorated.